Pope Francis

Vatican's third-highest official convicted of child sex abuse in Australia

Cardinal George Pell. Photo: William West/AFP/Getty Images

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican's third-highest ranking member, was convicted by an Australian court Tuesday on charges related to the sexual abuse of two choir boys in the late 1990s, reports The Daily Beast. He's reportedly the highest ranking Vatican official to go to trial and face punishment in the church’s sex abuse scandal.

Why it matters: This is yet another major blow to the Catholic Church, one of the world’s most powerful institutions, which has been grappling with mounting child sex abuse scandals across the globe, including in the U.S. Pope Francis, who has faced some backlash over his handing of sexual abuse cases, on Wednesday expelled Pell and Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz of Chile from a Vatican advisory group. Errázuriz has been accused of covering up cases for abusive priests.

Pope Francis says homosexuality in the clergy "worries" him

Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

A book coming out next week called La Fuerza de la vocacion (The Strength of Vocation) quotes Pope Francis as saying homosexuality in the clergy "is something that worries" him, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The big picture: The pope reportedly hit on the subject in an interview to Fernando Prado, a Spanish-born missionary priest. Francis is also quoted in the book breaking from the opinion that having gay people in Catholic housing is not a big deal because it's "only an expression of faith," saying "there is no place for this kind of affection" in priestly life. In the past, Francis has urged the church to remember that gay people are "persons who will live in the service of the church, of the Christian community, of the people of God."